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Custom BIONICLE Skin Testing Wiki:Manual of Style
This is a guideline as to how all articles on the mainspace of this wiki ("regular" articles) should be written. Note that pages on other namespaces, such as user pages, can be written differently and are not included in this page. Layout Guide This is a guide as to how articles should be organized, which has its own separate page. All material on the Layout Guide should be treated as if they were part of the Manual of Style. Language Articles on Custom BIONICLE should be written in English. Although American English is preferred and highly encouraged, it is not required. It is also preferred that you not make use of other languages without translation as well or description in American English within stories or pages. For example, if a character were to say something in Spanish, the correct English translation ought to be written aside the quote, or otherwise use of another language would have to be described in order to prevent reader confusion. For example, "Sidorak mumbled something in another language" would be preferred if no translation is to be provided. Use of another language in articles is discouraged unless in use by a character in a story or in an ancient or exotic inscription. The article, whatever it is, must be written mostly in English. Capitalization Capitalization should follow the standard conventions of American English. Do not use capital letters for emphasis (with the exception of when a character is expressing something in a story article); where wording alone cannot provide the emphasis, use italics. Offices, positions, and job titles are common nouns and therefore start with a capital letter only when followed by a person's name—in other words, when they have become part of the name. When used generically, they should be in lower case. However, if the word refers to a person, it should be in capitals. There are some ranks the name of which should always be capitalized, no matter the semantics (i.e., “Dark Lord”). All character, faction, and species names should have the first letter of each important word capitalized (such as "Lykos," rather than "lykos"). The one major exception to capitalization rules is the word "BIONICLE," which can be spelled in capitals. Only the aforementioned should be capitalized, not normal nouns. For example, writing "Teridax Is A Makuta" is incorrect, whilst "Teridax is a Makuta" is correct, as only the specific species and character names are capitalized. Correct Usage *Takanuva is the only named Toa of Light in canon, and he became a Toa and fought Makuta Teridax on Mata Nui. **Notes: Takanuva and Teridax are character names. Toa is a species name, and Toa of Light is a character "job title" as is Makuta (which is also a species name). Mata Nui is the name of a specific location. Incorrect Usage *Takanuva Is The Only Named Toa Of Light In Canon, And He Became A Toa And Fought Makuta Teridax On Mata Nui. *takanuva is the only named toa of light in canon, and he became a toa and fought makuta teridax on mata nui. **Notes: Only the things noted above in "capitalization" should be capitalized, but they MUST be capitalized, hence why both examples above are incorrect. Acronyms and Abbreviations When abbreviating, remember to write both the full version and abbreviation; for example, instead of writing "Botar was a member of the OoMN," one would write "Botar was a member of the Order of Mata Nui (OoMN)." Exceptions can be made for abbreviations that are known as well or better than their full name, such as "DNA." However, it is usually not required to write the full name out, as names such as "Order of Mata Nui" can instead be reduced to "Order" if necessary. Remember that capitalization rules still apply; do not use initial capitals in a full term that is a common noun because capitals are used in the abbreviation (you would not say, "Antidermis Destroyer (AD)," but rather "Antidermis destroyer (AD)"). Like all nouns, acronyms become plural by adding -s or -es at the end. Apostrophes should not be used. Correct Usage *Helryx is the founder of the Order of Mata Nui. *Helryx is the founder of the Order. **Notes: Unless the "Order" mentioned above is noted to be the Order of Mata Nui in a previous text, this could incite confusion among readers, though it is still permitted by the Manual of Style. Incorrect Usage *Helryx is the founder of the OoMN. *Helryx is the founder of the Order of MN. Article Titles Most generally, article titles are based on the subject of the article. There will often be several possible alternative titles for any given article; the choice between them is made by consensus. Remember that article titles must conform to proper word usage guidelines such as capitalization. When naming an article, please abide the following procedure: *Use the "official" name whenever possible (in a fanfic article, that means that it is the given name for the character that its creator has chosen). If more than one "official" name of the subject is known, use the most full and accurate version of the name. *Do not use character titles, species names, occupations, etc. in the page name of a character that has the specific title or belongs to the specific species. For example, naming Tahu's page "Toa Tahu" goes against the policy, as with "Makuta Teridax". If it refers to a group name, however, such as if there is a Toa team named "Toa Tahu", then the page name could be "Toa Tahu". *Whenever alternate names are used (i.e., Akatark and Krataka) you are encouraged to use the name under which the subject was known during the later time period, or, for characters, at the moment of the character's death. If multiple names were used by the character simultaneously, it is preferred that you use the most commonly known of those names (i.e., Nightwatcher instead of Charon) *If no "official" name exists, a nickname may be used, but please use the Nickname template. It is common for pages to be named something like "Unidentified Great Being" (NOT "Unknown Great Being"), but it is usually better for them to have more specific (albeit still conjectural) names (i.e., Keeper of the Elder Prophecies). There is a specific problem for canon (as well as some fanon) articles, which is that often, people may wish to create their own versions of the pages. Normally, that problem can be solved by adding subsections to existing sections to give information about their parallel versions, but sometimes the subsection is long enough to merit its own article. In those instances, you have permission to create a page of your own. Often, it should have the same title as the main article with your username or the name of the alternate universe in parentheses afterward, but if your character has, say, had his name changed in the alternate continuity, then it is allowed to make a new article with that name. Note that the new article should still have a subsection on the main article's "History" section, though it would preferably be summarized to avoid the length problems that a new article is meant to prevent. Remember, proper capitalization in page titles is important. The first letter in an article title is required to be a capital letter by the MediaWiki software; you are encouraged to capitalize nouns and significant words (verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc) following. In other words, you are encouraged to use the process for capitalizing books titles. In general, only create page titles that are in the singular, unless that noun is always in a plural form in English, such as binoculars (note that category names follow different pluralization conventions). Except in titles of works (The Darkness Returns, A Chance for Redemption) or in "official" names (The Cavern, The Claw), avoid the definite ("the") and indefinite ("a"/"an") articles or prepositions ("of", "on", "for", etc.) at the beginning of a page name. This applies even if the subject of the page is usually preceded by the definite article "the" in speech or writing: thus, for example, "Chronicler" is preferred over "the Chronicler;" however, the news show "The Chronicler" is fine. Use the full name of the subject instead of its abbreviation (for example: Heroism Empowered Resourceful Ordinary instead of HERO). "BIONICLE" should not usually be placed before article titles (i.e., BIONICLE: The Darkness Returns) unless the article is a fictitious BIONICLE film, series, or game, and the title requires the word to "work" (i.e., BIONICLE Universe). Some special characters either cannot be used or can but cause problems. For example, you should not use a piping character (|), an asterisk (*), an ampersand (&), a plus sign (+), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]) in a name. Correct Usage *Tahu **Notes: This page must refer to the character named "Tahu". If this is about a team or group, however, then "Toa" is allowed at the beginning, if this is the correct team name. *Teridax **Notes: The same rules noted under "Tahu" apply here. *Mata Nui **Notes: All capitalization rules still apply. *Ignika **Notes: The same rules apply, even if this is a Kanohi, the title "Kanohi" may not be in the page title. *Unidentified Great Being **Notes: This is only applicable if there is no official name for this being. *Toa Hagah **Notes: This is ONLY applicable if this refers to a TEAM by this name and not a character by the name of "Hagah". Otherwise, the page must be referred to as "Hagah". Incorrect Usage *Toa Tahu **Notes: This is incorrect if it refers to the character named Tahu, as occupations or species may not be in page names. *tahu **Notes: The capitalization rules still apply here. Even if the page's name does not refer to something specific, capitalize the first letter as if you are starting a sentence. If it does refer to something specific with multiple words, capitalize the first word of every part of the name, like in "Mata Nui". *Mata nui **Notes: See under "tahu". *Dark Lord Teridax **Notes: Character titles may not be in page names, as stated above. *Emperor Kragator **Notes: Occupations or titles may not be in page names, as stated above. *Kanohi Ignika **Notes: Kanohi titles may not be in page names. *The Ignika **Notes: "The" may not be in a page name unless it is the correct name of a piece of media (story, game, series). *Unknown-named guy **Notes: Refer to an unnamed being in a professional manner in page titles and in the page content itself. Headings Most of the above page naming rules apply to headings as well. If a section is too small to cover all information about a topic, you may place the template Main, which can guide readers to articles on that topic. The See also template may also be used, but remember only to use it sparingly. Categories Many of the above page naming rules apply to categories as well. Official categories will use the above-mentioned book titling rules. Quotes Quotations may be included in the content if they are less than a paragraph long; if they are a paragraph or longer, or a dialogue, then the Quote and Dialogue templates may be used. Please be sure to provide as much information as possible (for instance: characters speaking/narrator, source, and page if applicable). Redundant internal links should not be added to quotes because they serve little purpose beyond making the quotes appear cluttered and messy. Links should only be added to quotes if they contain a specific article's only mention of a particular concept. Piped links should be avoided as much as possible. Per standards of American English, double quotation marks (" ") are default on both of the already-mentioned templates and the period (full stop), comma, question marks, and exclamation marks should be within the quotation. Single quotation marks (' ') should only be used when there is a quotation inside a quotation. Spoilers The spoiler template may be used if information in an article is from as-yet-unreleased storyline information; for example, future material from a fan fiction story serial.